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  1. #1

    To Resell or not to Resell

    Hi all and first of all greets to everybody. First time here after flowering through google for some decent (non-sponsored) hosting advice, glad to have found you.

    Anyway, to the nuts and bolts of the post...

    I've been doing some casual website work for the past few years and am pretty adept at php/mySQL so tend to be more of a functionality coder as opposed to a designer (themeforest.net is my friend ).

    In the time I have been creating/maintaining various sites, I have used/am using standard web hosting providers (web-mania, qiq, 4uhosting, justhostme) and in all honesty, they have pretty much done the job. The clients that I have are not interested in having control panel access etc., they just want to give me a brief for a site and then see it appear magically on the net. Any dynamic content required - news updates etc. - I am more than able to write scripts for them to manage directly via their own website. I am pretty much already the middle man between my client and the hosting provider, which I select/maintain the accounts for.

    At the moment, I have circa half a dozen sites on the go and my current host offers unlimited domain addons and all the usual premium package gumbo to go with it. If I remember correctly, it's something like 7.5gb space and 75gb /month bandwidth.

    I've had a recent enquiry from a client who will be wanting to host some training videos for his small company, something like 8 vids at 10 - 20mb each, which will have some minimal to moderate use, nothing too heavy, I'm guessing 2 to 3 users viewing 2 to 3 of those videos per week.

    This has led me to start thinking about the option/benefits of becoming a reseller, and not exactly having the knowledge to understand the whole idea of what becoming a reseller entails, I figured I'd drop in here and seek some honest opinions from the guys/girls in the know.

    There is a lot of the terminology I'm not familiar with (VPS/WHMCS etc.) as I have always pretty much left the technical aspect of the hosting to my providers, so try to go easy on me in that respect, but I welcome your input and whether you think that seeking out a reseller package as opposed to my current situation would be beneficial, subsequently pointing out the benefits

    Something I would also like to think about doing in the future is adding SSL to my sites to protect both my clients and their site visitors, something that can be done much more cheaply on a reseller account?

    Many thanks in advance

    Danny (UK based)

  2. #2
    Hi Danny,

    Welcome to WHT forums. Glad to hear about your career success.

    If you don't want to setup accounts manually, you would need software to automate account creation and billing process (such as WHMCS, Blesta, ClientExec) and a shared hosting account with reseller privileges. That's about it. The only thing you should make sure that the billing software would support your resellers control panel (9/10 of WHT providers use nothing more then cPanel that is supported by almost all billing software solutions).

    As an option consider looking for managed reseller providers that will be able to help you setup all the necessary software to start reselling their hosting services.
    Last edited by DmitrijCSR; 02-17-2012 at 09:38 AM.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
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    Hi Danny,

    Welcome to the forum!

    A reseller can be developer/designers best friend. I market resellers as being a cheaper solution for designers to host clients without worrying about dedicated server costs and management etc etc.

    It will likely be cheaper over all and allow you to seperate each site into its own account.

    The only thing with SSL certs is the requirement for a dedicated IP for each SSL cert, so take note of dedicated IP costs with any potential providers you look into, some charge £1/month whilst others will charge a lot more.
    Last edited by Ricky-GWS; 02-17-2012 at 09:40 AM.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    San Diego, California
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    865
    The main advantages of a reseller account for your situation are consolidation of the accounts and perhaps a cost savings. A reseller account is very similar to typical single-site shared accounts in the respect that it doesn't require any special technical knowledge. It's still a shared platform, so the host takes care of server management, etc... The only new aspect you'd have to learn is the reseller control panel that would allow you to create additional accounts.

    Unless your host charges you to install SSL certificates, the price of SSL certificates will likely be the same or very similar between shared and reseller accounts.
    Othio Hosting - Private-Label cPanel Reseller Hosting
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  5. #5
    I doubt you'll need WHMCS for what you're doing. You can just create the cPanel account for your client using WebHostManager. You can give the login details to the client if needed.

    If you want to pay lower pricing for SSL certifcates you can get WHMCS as a eNom domain/ssl reseller account is included.
    HostXNow - Shared Web Hosting | Semi Dedicated Hosting | Enterprise Reseller Hosting | VPS Hosting

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
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    Pennsylvania
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    778
    Quote Originally Posted by web1928 View Post
    The clients that I have are not interested in having control panel access etc., they just want to give me a brief for a site and then see it appear magically on the net.
    Hi!

    It sounds like you'll be able to make do by simply provisioning the accounts as add-on domains in cPanel. No billing, no control panel access, no nothing -- their site just works with minimal effort.

    At the same time, WHMCS is free with many resellers. WHMCS (or any billing system) might be overkill for you right now, but it opens you up to the potential for future expansion. And again, many resellers bundle it for free.

    Quote Originally Posted by web1928 View Post
    This has led me to start thinking about the option/benefits of becoming a reseller, and not exactly having the knowledge to understand the whole idea of what becoming a reseller entails, I figured I'd drop in here and seek some honest opinions from the guys/girls in the know.
    Useing a reseller basically means that you're reselling someone else's web hosting service. It's usually white label, which makes it appear that you're selling your own service. Some resellers go as far as providing end-user support, so that if one of your clients has a question at 3am, the reseller takes care of it.

    There are small differences from host to host, but that's the gist of it.

    Quote Originally Posted by web1928 View Post
    There is a lot of the terminology I'm not familiar with (VPS/WHMCS etc.) as I have always pretty much left the technical aspect of the hosting to my providers, so try to go easy on me in that respect, but I welcome your input and whether you think that seeking out a reseller package as opposed to my current situation would be beneficial, subsequently pointing out the benefits
    If you don't plan to expand, I don't see a need for a reseller package for you. If you want to start doing more hosting (and making a profit at it), a reseller account can be a great place to start.

    There are some "purists" (and I use that term loosely) who swear up and down that "no real host uses a reseller account". They swear that you MUST use a VPS or you MUST have your own datacenter or you MUST use a dedicated server. Ignore them. The reseller-vs-VPS debate is about as useful and insightful as "what's the best color".

    A VPS, by the way, is a Virtual Private Server. It's functionally identical to having a dedicated server, but costs a lot less. You'll also have more power than traditional shared (or reseller) hosting, but less power than a dedicated. And you'll either need to manage the VPS yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

    Quote Originally Posted by web1928 View Post
    Something I would also like to think about doing in the future is adding SSL to my sites to protect both my clients and their site visitors, something that can be done much more cheaply on a reseller account?
    The cost of an SSL really won't change based on what type of account you have. Some resellers do include discounted SSLs in their reseller offerings, but you can just as easily go purchase an SSL from someone like Namecheap for around $8 - $10 / year.
    The world would be a better place if people drank better coffee.

  7. #7
    Hi,
    Glad to hear that your Developing works grow bigger.

    Its easy these days to become a reseller, as many webhoster provides you a managed reseller package which is easy to manage all registrants on matters of hosting.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
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    21,920
    It sounds like you'll be able to make do by simply provisioning the accounts as add-on domains in cPanel.
    I think it's safer and cleaner to have separate end user accounts for each of his customers. If somehow one of the customers' sites gets hacked, there are some good chances that all the other customers won't suffer at all.

    Something I would also like to think about doing in the future is adding SSL to my sites to protect both my clients and their site visitors, something that can be done much more cheaply on a reseller account?
    It's not just a matter of cost. SSL requires a dedicated IP, and, last I looked, a cPanel shared hosting account can't have more than one dedicated IP assigned to it (unless the host is willing to tinker with the server, which is generally not going to be the case): http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/vie...atedSubdomains

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